The publication Security, Creativity, Tolerance and their Co-existence: The New European Agenda on Freedom of Artistic Expression, promoted by Freemuse outlines how European governments carry the legal responsibility to respect, protect and fulfil obligations to artistic freedom. The report further draws attention to the alarming trend of governments targeting artists under the existing laws such as anti-terrorism legislation, or with the use of laws prohibiting offending religion such as hurting “religious feelings” and art that is considered to be “blasphemous” or “obscene”.

The report is an analysis of the human right to freedom of artistic expression based on monitoring of legal and policy development and individual cases of violations of artistic freedom in Europe over the past two years (January 2018 to October 2019).

The ROCK regulatory framework has been envisaged as an assemblage of key policy recommendations  empowering Cultural Heritage as a driver for sustainable and smart growth, with a special reference to public procurement. Its development is an attempt to shape better implementation frameworks, targeting decision and policy makers from all administrative levels. The ROCK deliverable “Regulatory Framework, ROCKProcurement And Policy Recommendations”, coordinated by the expert Sylvia Amann is now published.

The World Urban Forum is an important milestone for cities and local governmemnts. It is a high-level forum convened by UN-Habitat. Every two years it connects the urban and development agenda and it offers an opportunity to meet member states and other partners. The upcoming Tenth Session of the World Urban Forum (WUF10) theme is "Cities of Opportunities: Connecting Culture and Innovation".

The UCLG Culture Committee will participate in several sessions of the World Urban Forum:

The European Cultural Foundation, Rijeka 2020 European Capital of Culture, Krytyka Polityczna and ZEMO98 invite you to apply for participation in Culture Lab Europe, which will take place from 16-18 April 2020 In Rijeka, Croatia. The call is looking for cultural activists and mediators who are engaged in initiatives that create spaces for solidarity and public debate, and who are keen on European collaboration.

All across Europe, citizens (including those who are not formally recognised as such) are realising they are not alone and are organising their communities. They are creating new online and offline spaces where working together and generating solidarity is what matters. In these spaces culture functions as a language to describe reality, to express feelings and opinions. Culture works to strengthen social ties and helps to imagine alternative ways of living and engaging with others in understanding, trust and peace. Connecting these spaces will provide a crucial infrastructure for a cultural movement that can reclaim European democracy.

Culture Lab Europe has been set up as a live platform to strengthen this movement. Cultural activists and mediators will establish connections with colleagues from across Europe and work on common initiatives that can strengthen European Pulic Space. Culture Lab Europe provides a safe and inspirational working environment based on principles of free and open culture.

You can find all information on the application procedure here: https://www.culturalfoundation.eu/culture-lab-europe

Deadline for application is 31st of january 2020, 12:00 CET.

Culture at Work Africa consortium has launched a contest to select a song that addresses the themes of intercultural dialogue and cultural diversity.

The Contest is open to songwriters/performers (minimum age 18 years) from the following countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda and Zimbabwe.

People interested must comply with the contest guidelines and can submit their songs along with the participation form.

Deadline for submission: February 3, 2020 at 12:00 (GMT)

Culture at Work Africa is co-funded by the European Union and is implemented by a consortium led by Interarts.

• Culture at Work Africa: Songwriting contest guidelines

The CIDOB (Barcelona Centre for International Affairs) has recently published a report entitled "Advancing urban rights. Equality and diversity in the city", coordinated by Eva Garcia-Chueca, investigadora senior y coordinadora científica del programa ciudades globales, CIDOB, y Lorenzo Vidal , investigador, y gestor de proyectos, CIDOB (Eds.), and including some contribution of Jordi Baltá Portolès, expert on culture and sustainable cities of the Committee on Culture of UCLG.

The monograph engages with issues, related to the Right to the City, urban and human right, the promotion of diversity, and guaranteeing equality for all as responsibilities of cities and local governments. It focuses, in particular, on identifying and analysing redistribution and recognition policies, especially at local level, institutional change and social production of the city in an increasingly urban world.

Download the report and/or get more information here.

The International Women Photographers Association (IWPA) is a non profit association in France acting on a global scale. Their main missions are the promotion of women photographers of all origins and nationalities, and working for Parity and Equality through photography in the World.

Every year, they organize the International Women Photographers Award.

The IWPA award was created to provide a global platform for international women photographers increasing the visibility of women’s work every year thanks to a traveling show in several international key cities.

The Award aims to encourage and support women photographers on the path of reaffirming their personal voice and their vision. It creates an unique opportunity to improve their prominence as they are still highly underrepresented in the world of photography and lack access to platforms and institutions willing to show their works.

Since 2016 the exhibition has travelled to Dubai, Riyadh, Tokyo, Singapore, New Delhi, Beirut, Saida, Zahleh, Amman, Paris, Toulouse, Marseille, Bangalore, Hyderabad, where 33 photographers from all over the world exhibited their works. In three years, IWPA has received more than 1700 applications from over 80 different countries.

IWPA is interested in collaborating with potential partners and exhibition halls.

For more info, please see this presentation.

Seongbuk's "Common Artist Roundtablte: Local Culture Governance" winning programme of the 3rd edition of the International Award UCLG - Mexico City - Culture 21 will the central theme of a Forum which will be organised in Seongbuk on next 12 -13 December 2019.

The Forum is entitled "Coexistence, sharing and symbiosis" and will mainly tackle the relation that exists between cultural cooperation and sustainable cities, as well as the social value of arts and culture. 

More information here. and on the Facebook page of the programme.

Sound Diplomacy and Legal and General recently launched a new report called "This Must Be the Place: the Role of Music and Cultural Infrastructure in Creating Better Future Cities for all of Us".

This is the first in-depth report on the role of music and culture across the future cities debate and a landmark report linking creativity with construction. With it, the authors aim to develop a new Future Cities model, one that builds music and culture in to the core of a place, rather than bolt it on after its design, development and implementation. Cities are cities of communities and creators. They must be cities of agency, cities of diversity and cities of experience. But they must also be viable. Bringing music and culture to the forefront of the development process and envisaging its impact on places in 5, 10 and 15 years will make places better. To do this, this report provides 10 key core values for any architect, planner, urbanist, developer, city council member or citizen as a guide.

Click here to see the full report (only available in English).